Electromagnetically operated temperature regulating system



Feb- 2, 1965 R. DIENER 3,168,242

ELECTROMAGNETICALLY OPERATED TEMPERATURE REGULATING SYSTEM Filed Nov. 5, 1962 TOMU/$70,? $1/ Hg, l E111/5047025 SEA/.177775 REI/570,?

A-menvEJ( United States Patent Oilce 3,168,242 ELECTRll/IAGNETICALLY OPERATED TEMPERA- TURE REGULA'HNG SYSTEM Rudolf Diener, Zurich, Switzerland, assigner, by mesue assignments, to Eldima A.G., Zurich, Switzerland Filed Nov. 5, 1952, Ser. No. 235,309 4 Claims. (Cl. 236-75) The present invention relates to a temperature responsive electro-magnetically actuated liuid ilow regulating system, for example to a valve for controlling the circulation of water in a central heating plant in accordance with the temperature.

The invention has the primary object of providing an electro-magnetically controlled liuid flow control member the obturator body of which is continuously in stable equilibrium at all possible positions of its working range between fully closed and fully opened limiting positions. lt is another object of the invention to provide a fluid fiow control system of this character which is free from overregulating and consequential hunting. It is yet another object of the invention to provide a fluid ilow control system oi the kind referred to which is rapidly responsive even to small variations of temperature.

With these and other objects in View which will become apparent later from this specification and the accompanying drawing, l provide an arrangement for displacing a fluid iiow control member comprising in cornbination: a solenoid coil, a movable armature in operative relationship with said coil, an obturator body or valve member lixedly connected with said armature, a spring biasing said obturator body towards its closing position in opposition to the magnetic force applied to said armature by said solenoid when energized, a current supply device having at least one amplifier connected to said solenoid and, in operation, supplying thereto an energizing current conforming with the spring characteristic of said spring and generating a magnetic torce keeping said obturator body in continuously stable equilbrium in all positions thereof.

Preferably, a stationary armature is arranged coaxially with and in juxtaposition to said movable armature within said solenoid coil. dreierably each of said armatures has a pole shoe with at least one annular rib of trapezoidal profile, the truste-conical surfaces or said pole shoes having the same inclination corresponding to a half-aperture angle not exceeding representing a maximum angle of convergence not exceeding 30, and including between themselves at least one air gap of the magnetic circuit, or possibly two such air gaps arranged in parallel in said circuit.

These and other features of my said invention will be readily understood from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof given by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FlG. l is a longitudinal section of an electromagnetically contr lled valve whose solenoid coil is connected with a source of energizing current by the circuit diagram illustrated and FIG. 2 is a graph plotting the spring force biasing said valve (in kilograms) and the energizing current for vthe solenoid (in milli-amps) against the compression of the biasing spring (in millimetres).

The control arrangement illustrated comprises an electromagnetically controlled valve designated generally as 1, the valve head or obturator body 2, the conguration 3,168,242 Patented Feb. 2, 1965 of which is spherical and is connected by a spindle 3 with a vertically movable cylindrical armature 4. The valve casing 5 has an inlet port 6, an outlet port 7 and a complementary spherical valve seat 8, on which the spherical valve head 2 rests in the closure position.

The valve casing 5 is connected through a cylindrical sleeve 9 with an annular plate lt), which is enclosed by the lower end of a cylindrical housing ll. The housing 11 is closed on top by a cover l2, from which a stationary armature 13 projects inwardly towards the movable armature 4, having the same diameter as the latter. The armatures 4 and 13 are surrounded by a bobbin 14 of insulating material for the solenoid coil 15, the magnetic flux of which is closed by the ferromagnetic components 4, ltr, ll, l2 and i3 of the magnetic circuit.

The movable armature d has a pole shoe or pole piece formed by an integrally formed annular rib of regular isosceles trapezoidal cross-sectional conguration, whicr projects upwardly from the upper end face of the armature 4. The stationary armature 13 has a pole shoe formed by two annular ribs i3d, which project downwardly from the lower end face of the armature 13 and dene therebetween an annular recess complementary to the rib 4a. The annular ribs 4a and 13a are co-axial with one another and with the axis of the cylindrical solenoid coil 13, and the annular rib 4a, which has a shape defined by a surface of revolution about the longitudinal axis of the coil 15 of a regular isosceles trapezoid and engages in the complementary annular recess between the annular ribs 13a, the profiles ot which each have the shape of a symmetrical trapezoid, the inclinations of the frustoconical sides of the trapezoidai proles being equal. ln other words, the two pole shoes 4a and 13a have two pairs of juxtaposed truste-conical surfaces, between which there are formed two annular air gaps s which are arranged in parallel in the magnetic circuit.

It will be seen that by an upward movement of the movable armature 4 the (substantially radial) width of the gaps s is reduced, while their (substantially axial) length increases. The inclination of the truste-conical sides with respect to their axis, i.e. half the aperture angle x of the angle of convergence of the truste-conical sides with respect to tieir axis, i.e. half the aperture angle a of the angle of convergence ot the frusto-conical surfaces amounts preferably to less than 15, if desired even less than l0, corresponding to an angle of convergence in the range from less than 20 to 30. The

'described construction of the pole shoes 4a and 13a is of importance for generatina a high magnetic force with comparatively small dimensions of the magnetic system, and for attaining a substantially straight-line characteristic (see the graph of FIG. 2).

The stationary armature 13 has a central longitudinal bore lo, the upper end of which is provided with a screw tapping 17, into which a plug 1S is screwed, which serves for regulating the pre-loading @0; FIG. 2) of a compression spring 1g lying below said plug 1S in the bore 16. The spring 19 is formed or" stacked spring washers and bears at the bottom on an abutment Ztl which at its lower end has a centering pin 2l engaging into a bore 22 of the armature 4, on which the abutment 29 rests with its shoulder 2.3. On top of the abutment 2t) a recess 24 is provided, into which engages a pin 2.5 arranged within the spring 19 whose upper end abuts the plug 18, when the valve is opened, i.e. upon an upward movement of the armature 4 connected with #y t the spherical valve head 2, before the pole shoes 13a and 4a contact one another, in order to prevent any sticking of these pole shoes to one another. On the valve stem 3 a collar 26 is fixed, which is xedly connected with the upper end of a resilient metal bellows 27, whose lower end is in turn xedly connected with a ring 28 arranged on the valve casing 5. The bellows 27 serves for the glandless sealing of the magnetic system.

The solenoid coil is electrically connected with the output terminals 29 and 3l) of a device designated generally as 3l, which controls the energizing current as a function of a temperature, e.g. the temperature ot' water flowing through the valve l, which may be built for example into a central heating installation. For measuring the temperature, a temperature-sensitive resistor 3?, is provided, which forms one branch of a Wheatstone bridge, the other branches of which are formed by two fixed resistors 33, 3d and an adjustable resistor 35, respectively.

The input terminals 36 and 37 of the bridge 32-35 are connected through a resistor 33 to a full-wave bridge type rectier 39, the voltage of which is smoothed out by a capacitor 45j shunted in parallel to the input terminals 36, 37 of the temperature sensing bridge 32, 3S. The rectifier 39 is fed by a irst secondary winding 4i of a transformer 42, whose primary coil 43 is connected to the alternating current mains.

The output terminals 4d and #l5 of the bridge .E2-i5 are connected to the base and to the emitter, respectively, of a irst transistor 46. The emitter of the transistor 46 is connected to the base of a second transistor 47, whose emitter is in turn connected to the base of a third transistor 4S. The collectors of the three transistors i6-4S are directly connected to the output terminal 30.

rThe emitter of the transistor 4d is connected with the positive pole of a full-wave rectiiier formed by two diodes 49 and a center-tapped second secondary winding Sil of the transformer 42. The negative pole of the rectifier d?, Sil is connected with the output terminal 29.

The arrangement described operates as follows:

By means of the adjustable resistor the bridge 32-35 is adjusted to a predetermined limit temperature, which when exceeded, should causes the valve 1 to be opened. The potential of the output terminal of the bridge 321-35 is slightly positive with respect to that of the output terminal 4d, when the temperature-sensitive resistor 312 is subject to the limit temperature, so that a weak current ows in the emitter-base circuit of the transistor 46, which current is amplified in conventional manner by the transistors i7 and 4S, so that eg. an energizing current of 8O milliamps is supplied by the rectifier 49, Si) to the solenoid coil l5, corresponding to the point P0 of the graph according to FG. 2.

When the temperature rises further, the value of resistance of the resistor 32, which has a negative temperature coefficient, diminishes, and the bridges output terminal 44 becomes more pronouncedly negative with respect to the bridges output terminal 45, so that the energizing current increases and the armature 4 moves upwardly against the bias of the spring 1'9, and accordingly the spherical valve head 2 is lifted off its seat 8.

In FIG. 2 a graph actually recorded for a device of the kind according to FIG. l is illustrated. The abscissae indicate the compression of the spring 19 in millimetres, and the ordinates indicate the corresponding spring force in kilograms. The thin line part or" this spring characteristic extends from the origin to the pre-loading point P0. When the spherical valve head 2 rests on its seat 8, the spring has accordingly been compressed by 7 millimetres by screwing the regulating plug i8 into the tapped screw thread i7, corresponding to a spring force of 18 kilograms. lt is clear that the pre-loading of the spring is chosen in accordance with the pressure of the duid.

The thick line part of the spring characteristic indicates the working range. 'Ehe maximum compression of the spring amounts to 23 millimetres, corresponding to a valve up-stroke or" 23 minus 7 equals lo millimetres, and to a maximum spring force of 54 kilograms. rThe valve head 2 naturally adjusts itself at any time in such a manner that the spring force and the magnetic force (as well as the comparatively small hydraulic forces) are in equilibrium with one another. On the test rig a linear functional relationship between the energizing current and the spring force was established, so that the energizing current has been represented simply on a second ordinate scale on the right hand side of FlG. 2.

It should be remarked, that the valve ll is fully controlled already by a temperature difference of 1/2 C., i.e. that the valve 1 is fully opened at a temperature exceeding the limit value by 1/2 C., while being fully closed at the limit temperature itself (or any temperature below the same). The solenoid coil l5 had l0,0G0 turns of copper wire. The number of ampere-turns varied ccordingly in the working range between SGO and 2000. The valve head 2. remained quietly stationary at any position within the working range, i.e. in a stable equilibrium corresponding to the actual temperature.

While I have described herein and illustrated in the accompanying drawing what may be considered a typical and par icularly useful embodiment `of my said invention, l wish it to be understood, that l do not limit myself to the particular details and din ensions described and illustrated; for obvious modiiicatlons will occur to a person skilled in the art.

What l claim as my inve-nti-on and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

l. i temperature regulating system comprising: a ternperature-sensitive resistor the resistance of which varies in response to variations in the temperature to be regulated; a substantially balanced bridge circuit, said resistor being included in `one of the arms thereof, said bridge circuit providing an voutput signal which varies in direction and magnitude in accordance with the deviation oi said regulated temperature from a predetermined reference temperature; ampliiier means having an input connected to said bridge circuit for amplifying said output signal; a solenoid valve for controlling the tiow of a heat transfer medium to vary said regulated tempera-ture, said valve comprising a hollow cylindrical operating winding connected to the output of said amplifier means for response to the arnpliiied output signal of said bridge circuit; a magnetizable cylindrical plunger member axially mot/:ably disposed within said winding coaxially therewith for magnetization thereby; ya fixed cylindrical magnetizable member disposed within said winding coaxially therewith for magnetization thereby, said plunger member and said fixed member having confronting end faces, one of said end faces having an integrally formed annular extension projecting axially therebeyond coaxially therewith, said extension being detined by ia surface `of revolution about the longitudinal axis of said coil generated by a regular iscosceles trapezoid convergent toward the other end face with an angle of convergence within the range from 20-30, the other end face having an annular recess formed therein of configuration complementary to said extension for receiving said yextension therein; ya movable valve member included in said solenoid valve, said valve member being connected directly to said plunger member for displacement therewith; iluid irnpermeable eiectivery frictionless bellows means interposed between said winding and said valve member for preventing fluid ilow therebetween; a valve seat cooperating with said valve member for regulating uid iiow through said solenoid valve; and spring means yieldingly urging said valve Vmember to engage said seat to shut off said solenoid valve, said spring means being pre-biased to hold said solenoid valve closed at all times when said bridge circuit provides yan output signal not exceeding a 5 predetermined minimum value, said spring means, said magnetizable members, said operating winding, said bridge circuit and said ,temperature-sensitive resistor being dimemsioned to provide a stable linear relationship between the magnitude zof the output of said bridge circuit and the displacement of said valve member.

2. A temperature control system according to claim 1, wherein said amplifier means comprises a cascaded series of transistors.

3. A temperature control system according to claim 1, wherein the cooperating pontions of said valve member and said valve seat are iof complementary spherical Conigurations the centers of which lie on the longitudinal axis of said operating winding.

4. A control system according to claim l, wherein said spring means is formed of stacked spring washers.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,734,257 Kraft et al. Nov. 5, 1929 1,952,571 Smith Mar. 27, 1934 2,402,732 Cohen June 25, 1946 2,407,963 Persons Sept. 17, 1946 2,708,110 Clay May l0, 1955 2,949,237 De Wilde Aug. 16, 1960 2,954,530 Haskell Sept. 27, 1960 2,975,976 Smith et al Mar. 21, 1961 2,979,643 De Wilde et -al Apr. 1l, 1961 3,098,635 Delaporte et al. July 23, 1963 

1. A TEMPERATURE REGULATING SYSTEM COMPRISING: A TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE RESISTOR THE RESISTANCE OF WHICH VARIES IN RESPONSE TO VARIATIONS IN THE TEMPERATURE TO BE REGULATED; A SUBSTANTIALLY BALANCED BRIDGE CIRCUIT, SAID RESISTOR BEING INCLUDED IN ONE OF THE ARMS THEREOF, SAID BRIDGE CIRCUIT PROVIDING AN OUTPUT SIGNAL WHICH VARIES IN DIRECTION AND MAGNITUDE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DEVIATION OF SAID REGULATED TEMPERATURE FROM A PREDETERMINED REFERENCE TEMPERATURE; AMPLIFIER MEANS HAVING AN INPUT CONNECTED TO SAID BRIDGE CIRCUIT FOR AMPLIFYING SAID OUTPUT SIGNAL; A SOLENOID VALVE FOR CONTROLLING THE FLOW OF A HEAT TRANSFER MEDIUM TO VARY SAID REGULATED TEMPERATURE, SAID VALVE COMPRISING A HOLLOW CYLINDRICAL OPERATING WINDING CONNECTED TO THE OUTPUT OF SAID AMPLIFIER MEANS FOR RESPONSE TO THE AMPLIFIED OUTPUT SIGNAL OF SAID BRIDGE CIRCUIT; A MAGNETIZABLE CYLINDRICAL PLUNGER MEMBER AXIALLY MOVABLE DISPOSED WITHIN SAID WINDING COAXIALLY THEREWITH FOR MAGNETIZATION THEREBY; A FIXED CYLINDRICAL MAGNETIZABLE MEMBER DISPOSED WITHIN SAID WINDING COAXIALLY THEREWITH FOR MAGNETIZATION THEREBY, SAID PLUNGER MEMBER AND SAID FIXED MEMBER HAVING CONFRONTING END FACES, ONE OF SAID END FACES HAVING AN INTEGRALLY FORMED ANNULAR EXTENSION PROJECTING AXIALLY THEREBEYOND COAXIALLY THEREWITH, SAID EXTENSION BEING DEFINED BY A SURFACE OF REVOLUTION ABOUT THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS OF SAID COIL GENERATED BY A REGULAR ISCOSCELES TRAPEZOID CONVERGENT TOWARD THE OTHER END FACE WITH AN ANGLE OF CONVERGENCE WITHIN THE RANGE FROM 20*-30*, THE OTHER END FRACE HAVING AN ANNULAR RECESS FORMED THEREIN OF CONFIGURATION COMPLEMENTARY TO SAID EXTENSION FOR RECEIVING SAID EXTENSION THEREIN; A MOVABLE VALVE MEMBER INCLUDED IN SAID SOLENOID VALVE, SAID VALVE MEMBER BEING CONNECTED DIRECTLY TO SAID PLUNGER MEMBER FOR DISPLACEMENT THEREWITH; FLUID IMPERMEABLE EFFECTIVELY FRICTIONLESS BELLOWS MEANS INTERPOSED BETWEEN SAID WINDING AND SAID VALVE MEMBER FOR PREVENTING FLUID FLOW THEREBETWEEN; A VALVE SEAT COOPERATING WITH SAID VALVE MEMBER FOR REGULATING FLUID FLOW THROUGH SAID SOLENOID VALVE; AND SPRING MEANS YIELDINGLY URGING SAID VALVE MEMBER TO ENGAGE SAID SEAT TO SHUT OFF SAID SOLENOID VALVE, SAID SPRING MEANS BEING PRE-BIASED TO HOLD SAID SOLENOID VALVE CLOSED AT ALL TIMES WHEN SAID BRIDGE CIRCUIT PROVIDES AN OUTPUT SIGNAL NOT EXCEEDING A PREDETERMINED MINIMUM VALUE, SAID SPRING MEANS, SAID MAGNETIZABLE MEMBERS, SAID OPERATING WINDING, SAID BRIDGE CIRCUIT AND SAID TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE RESISTOR BEING DIMENSIONED TO PROVIDE A STABLE LINEAR RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MAGNITUDE OF THE OUTPUT OF SAID BRIDGE CIRCUIT AND THE DISPLACEMENT OF SAID VALVE MEMBER. 